やり as a prefix - clarification please I have the following title: > which I think is roughly saying there is a that in advance of finishing there is a checklist (can anybody help with the literal translation?). My question is regarding as a prefix. I assume this is - to do. And to finish or graduate. But to me seems superfluous. What is the difference between these two? > > >

(≒) → +

is not a prefix, rather is one of a great many productive verb suffixes. Moreover, in this case using just sounds a bit strange to me (not native though).

Your final examples are the same as asking what the difference is between "be sure to check off what you've finished" vs "finished doing".